Nigeria

2012

Nigerian soldiers beat Leadership
Newspapers reporter David-Chyddy Eleke, confiscated his camera, and arrested him
for taking pictures of the demolition of buildings in Awka, in Anambra State in
Nigeria's southeast region on September 6, 2012, according to local journalists
and news
reports.

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Hardly ever do Nigerian journalists get justice for assaults
suffered in the line of duty. But things may be set to change with the case of Benedict Uwalaka, a
photojournalist with Leadership
Newspapers, who on August 9 was brutally assaulted
at a government hospital in Lagos State. The first step toward justice came 22
days later, when Bayo Ogunsola, one of the assailants identified by Uwalaka,
was arraigned
in court on August 31 on a two-count charge of assault and destruction of the
journalist's camera. Ogunsola pleaded not guilty on both counts.

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On August 13, 2012, unidentified passengers
illegally sitting on and hanging from rail cars of a moving train in Lagos,
Nigeria's commercial capital, assaulted two photojournalists for taking pictures
of them from a pedestrian bridge, according to news
reports.

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A group of armed men attacked the office of the
local branch of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in the southern city of
Warri on August 7, 2012, according to news
reports. The men came with kegs of gasoline and threatened to lynch
journalists and burn the office if they were not granted media coverage, news
reports said.

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Lagos, Nigeria, August 14, 2012--The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Nigerian authorities to immediately investigate an attack on the grounds of a government hospital that targeted a photographer seeking to cover the release of the remains of June plane crash victims to their families.

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Police in Lagos, the commercial
capital, assaulted at least 10 journalists and confiscated their equipment on
April 4, 2012, according to news reports. The journalists were covering a coroner's inquest into a 2010 traffic accident, the reports
said.

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Abuja, June 18, 2012--Nigerian authorities must
investigate the assault on a Nigerian journalist on June 14 and ensure the
perpetrators are brought to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said
today. News accounts reported that the attack occurred in the presence of
military and police officers who did not come to the journalist's aid.

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Abuja, June 13, 2012--A Nigerian journalist was assaulted by an immigration officer
in the capital, Abuja, Tuesday, according to local journalists and news reports. Joshua Uma, a
journalist with the daily Leadership, was on assignment
covering a protest by retirees
over non-payment
of pensions.

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On World Press Freedom Day last week,
Nigeria's Information Minister, Labaran Maku, publicly asserted that the
country's media "is one of the freest in the universe." On paper, Nigeria's
1999 Constitution
guarantees the freedom of the press to "uphold...the responsibility and
accountability of the government to the people." But seven journalists who
attempted to put this principle to practice on World Press Freedom Day
experienced a different reality -- one all too common for independent
journalists working in Africa's most populated nation.

Will China's quickly expanding media presence in Africa
result in a fresh, alternative, and balanced perspective on the continent--much as Al-Jazeera altered the broadcast landscape with the launch of its English
service in 2006--or will it be essentially an exercise in propaganda?